Last night's Season 5 premiere of Breaking Bad was mostly low-key, aside from the caper above, in which Walter and Jesse attempt to wipe out a laptop's hard drive with magnets from outside of where it's being held as evidence. ("Yeah, bitch! Magnets! Oh!")

But even in this scene (which doesn't necessarily "withstand close scientific scrutiny," reports the Times), there is an elegant rhythm, a deliberateness that is key to the appeal of Breaking Bad. Where storytelling is concerned, this is the most generous show on television, as it consistently circles back around to explain previously ambiguous points (if you had any doubt during last season's finale as to whether Walt poisoned Brock, the son of Jesse's thing-thing Andrea, you knew for sure Walter was the culprit when you saw him cleaning up and throwing out the potentially fatal Lily of the Valley plant). Breaking Bad is a show that makes an art out of crossing T's and dotting I's.

That said, I could see how the picking-up-the-pieces nature of this premiere could have underwhelmed, especially after the vise that the last few episodes of Season 4 had us in. So maybe you hated it. I did not. I cannot wait to see the butterfly effect that the magnets are bound to have (for example, they dislodged one of Gus' pictures to reveal bank account info that was clearly hidden on purpose). I can't wait to see how Walter "Because I Said So" White handles his mounting power/status as "the danger" and how much the machine gun he bought at the episode's opening flash-forward will factor in (creator/God of TV Vince Gilligan compares his character to Scarface). I can't wait to see how many flip phones get destroyed this time around. (Fun game: Take a hit of meth every time someone breaks one in half, as Mike did during this episode. You will be an addict in no time. Tighttighttight, yeah!)

Really, I can't wait to see whatever this show does because I am at its mercy.